I spent a total of 10 hours and 30 minutes in the saddle yesterday, climbed for 75km out of a total of 196km, and ascended half the height of Mt Everest (4,600m). I am writing this on our second rest day (needed!), i didn't have the energy to write it last night..
There was an early departure at 6.30am for those concerned that there may not be enough daylight hours to tackle the hardest day of the 2010 Tour route. I left our hotel in Luchon around 30 minutes later, and within 5 minutes was on the early part of the first cimb of the day up the Col de Peyresourde. In 2006 i cycled this mountain from the other side up, so had an idea of what it would be like. Taking it easy with Johnny, Sandy and Jake we ascended the foggy 14.5km climb in around 1hr 20 minutes.
Fromt he summit it was a cold (and wet) descent down to the next climb of the day, the Col D'Aspin. Similar gradient to the first climb, this mountain took us up to 1489m on a 12.5km ascent that did further damage to the legs, and by this point it wasn't even 10am. A lovely descent off the back of the Aspin (in improved weather) took us to the base of the infamous Col du Tourmalet. This mountain was first used in the Tour in 1910, and as it is the 100 year anniversary it is being used twice on this year's route. We will be back here on Wednesday.. The ascent from Sainte Marie was 17km in length, and amazingly we cycled through the cloud line at about 1800m on our way to the 2115m summit. Up there it was beautiful sunshine and blue sky, a good opportunity to rest and wait for everyone to reach the summit in their own time.
halfway up the Tourmalet
at the famous landmarks at the summit
most of the team resting their legs at the top
From the top of the Tourmalet we had an superb 19km downhill run (reaching speeds of 65km/h), during which something amazing happened. Descending a straight downhill stretch of road, i peered to my right just in time to see an eagle soaring about 20-30m away from me, at exactly the same height and flying in the same direction. The 6 foot wing-spanned bird followed my route for around 10 seconds... awesome. Shouts from cyclists behind told me i wasn't the only one to see this amazing sight
3 mountains done, only 1 to go... The last one however was 29km in length. After 5 hours of riding i had completed only 75km.. Devouring as much as i could for lunch, it was time to head up the Col de Soulor and onto the peak of the Col d'Aubisque. A climb that has 3 sections to it. I hooked up with Ed, Bev, Chris, Sandy and Colin for the 4th climb of the day.
By now some legs were really hurting, but the fact that it was past 5pm meant that resting at the top of the mountain couldn't be for too long.. we were told that the last 60km was "mainly downhill", and for the first time this information was true.. Our group of 7 worked very well in peloton (2 minute turns at the front) for the final hour to get us to the hotel just after 8.45pm. Having loaded with plenty of sugar at the final stop i rode into Pau feeling pretty good considering the long day we had just had.
Me with Bev and Ed after being on the road for 14.5 hours
Total distance: 3,085km
Total cycling time 134 hours 24 minutes
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